Category Archives: Europe

The Divine Comedy

Posted on April 24, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

In anticipation of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, Brooklyn artist George Cochrane has worked on a contemporary illuminated manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy—all 350,000 characters of the epic poem, plus illustrations, in the original Italian for nearly seven … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Books, Europe, History, Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

When In Rome

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Rome over the last few days because of the news that a new archeological site will be opening in the coming year in the heart of the Eternal City. If you haven’t heard, … Continue reading →

Posted in Air Travel, Architecture, Art, Europe, Film, History, Museums, Photography, Tourism | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Ghost Words

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

What does palimpsest mean? 1 : writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased. 2 : something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface.   One … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Asia, Books, Europe, History, Libraries, Middle East, Museums, Tech, Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Climate Crisis

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat newspaper has created a free and downloadable variable font that aims to make the urgency of climate change tangible by mirroring the declining amount of Arctic sea ice in its disappearing letterforms. While a regular typeface has … Continue reading →

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On the Fiery Edge of Oblivion

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Just when I managed to pull myself away from obsessively checking in on the Fagradalsfjall volcanic eruption in Iceland, the local band Kaleo released this astonishing music video. The performance video for Skinny was filmed live during a volcanic eruption … Continue reading →

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Mystery, History & some Cartography

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

One of the joys of being vaccinated against Covid-19 has been the ability to return to bookstore browsing. On my most recent visit to our local indie bookshop (shout out to Newtown Bookshop ) I picked up a copy of … Continue reading →

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This book can help save the Planet

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

The international retail giant Ikea has published a cookbook for creative cooking with recycled food waste called The ScrapsBook and it’s available to download for free. IKEA has created The ScrapsBook, in collaboration with chefs from across North America. This … Continue reading →

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Was Mordor actually in Siberia

Posted on April 11, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I haven’t watched much classic Soviet-era Russian television, but I imagine that little of the content was as weird as the recently rediscovered version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Embedded below are parts 1 and 2 of the … Continue reading →

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Irish Blessings

Posted on April 10, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

© Grant Snider Incidental Comics  

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Don’t Panic : The Answer Is Still 42

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

The indie publisher Unbound is preparing to release the crowdfunded book  42: The Wildly Improbably Ideas of Douglas Adams, featuring unseen notes, scripts and ideas from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy author. The book consists of excerpts from 67 boxes full of notebooks, letters, … Continue reading →

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